Sunday, April 29, 2012

ramblings

This is going to be just whatever comes to mind in the next few minutes that I can type out and pretend it forms some sort of coherent thought. You're welcome to continue reading, but I'm mostly writing to try and clear some room in my brain. The logic being that if I get something written down, then I can delete it from my mind and will have my room for other things. Perfect, yes? Anyway, I had a bit of a stomach flu problem yesterday and didn't get to enjoy much of the Family Day event from yesterday. The Family Day yesterday was a chance for employees to bring their spouses and children to the base for a dinner, children's talent show, and a generally suitable amount of drinking and dancing. And while some partied hard till quite late, I went to my room very early and tried to figure out what I ate that made me feel so miserable. I have no clear suspects but at least two others were also feeling a bit unsettled in the gastrointestinal region so a food-borne culprit seems most likely. And it was not something from the dinner as I was already ill by lunch time. All is well today so the investigation will not likely go any further. Back to the Family Day. Yes, it was seemingly very typical for what I understand a party here to be like. The same expected food dishes, socializing, dancing, drinking. It's undoubtedly one of many things about this place that I will never fully convey. It's just part of being here. So different and yet so normal.

What does that mean? So different and yet so normal? It is best summed up as my total lack of surprise. There's very little people could do that I would find shocking or surprising. Different, yes. Shocking, no, not really. Everywhere around the world people are different, but more or less the same. Once you cut through the outer layers of social customs and norms, the core needs we have are more or less the same. Like Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Maybe, but that's more structure than what comes to mind. Perhaps just the bottom three levels then or maybe not even that much. Regardless, it's part of my whole people are people philosophy. I often wish people could go through a course like much of the in-house training at work. Not for the technical material, but for the cultural experience of being in a 19-person class with people from 16 different countries working all over the world. People are people.

But what about robots? Are robots people? No. The answer is no. This is very obvious, why would you even ask such a question?

I do feel moderately relieved today. It's month end and the usual grind that goes with that is more or less over. Now the cycle repeats as always. Yeah yeah yeah. We're going to plan better and get templates made and have everything in place so it's less annoying next month. All lies! We need that crushing urgency of the last-minute to be productive. Procrastination is inspiration. Also, we just finished three moderately major jobs that had been delayed for a bit so that also feels good to know that they are "in the bag" and we're able to relax for about three hours then start preparing for the next set of jobs. But don't worry, we'll be better prepared and there won't be any procrastination next time!